Iranian World of Warcraft fans have been left outraged after the US company behind the game abruptly halted access in accordance with trade sanctions and refused to offer refunds.

After discovering they were unable to log on, Iran-based players began posting complaints on the Blizzard Activision forum. Days later, an employee delivered the bad news in a post.

"United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran. Several of you have seen and cited the text in the Terms of Use which relates to these government-imposed sanctions. Blizzard tightened up its procedures to ensure compliance with these laws, and players connecting from the affected nations are restricted from access to Blizzard games and services."

According to the post, disappointed fans of games like Diablo 3 and StarCraft 2 are not even due a refund—bad news for those who have ordered the upcomingMists of Pandaria. Blizzard's PR director Rob Hilburger's comments that the Iranian market is just "a tiny fraction" of its ten million strong worldwide network will presumably do little to calm fans who have been playing for more than a decade, now left with nothing more that a mild dig at the politics behind the decision: "We apologize for any inconvenience this causes and will happily lift these restrictions as soon as US law allows."

Tellingly, the post also made mention of suspicions that Iran was planning on blocking access to the Battle.net games portal anyway, saying, "Blizzard Entertainment cannot speak to any reports surrounding the Iranian government restricting games from its citizens."

On August 14, a week or so before gamers began experiencing difficulties logging on, a conference was held in Iran for the launch of the Islamic Revolution Game Designers Community. At the event, a brochure from the Iranian government's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance cited World of Warcraft as an "example of the means [by] which western propaganda is used to poison the mind of [the] youth population in Iran." Alongside an image of the game was a list of reasons, translated by a Tehran journalist for The Verge, including, "promotion of superstition and mythology," "promotion of violence due to too much violence," and "demonstration of inappropriate clothing and slutty outfits for female avatars."

The terms and conditions for World of Warcraft have long stated the following: "The software utilised by World of Warcraft and/or the service may not be downloaded or otherwise exported or re-exported into (or to a national or resident of) Cuba, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Iran, Syria or any other country to which the US has embargoed goods." The fact that action has only just been implemented suggests the game maker has either decided to take preemptive action after hearing about the founding of the Islamic Revolution Game Designers Community, or it has caved under the pressure of increasing tensions between the US and Iran. Either way, it is unlikely that the decision was impulsive, calling into question the company's decision to continue accepting payments up until the block date.

The news comes the same week that a former US state department science and technology advisor and an international lawyer posed an argument in the Los Angeles Times that trade and economic sanctions do not work. In the case of Iran, the pair wrote, "the sole intended consequence of all these sanctions has been zero insofar as scaling back or curtailing Iran's nuclear program." The article suggests security and stability will only be possible if the US opts for another tactic.

"Imposing more sanctions on Iran would result in further radicalization, adding fuel to the fire of hard-liners and eventually marginalizing the democratic forces in Iran. Instead of sanctions, the West is better advised to support and promote the Iranian private sector, which is the engine of economic growth and social change."